


we all know how to fake it, baby (we all know what we've done)

by failwolfhale



Series: My Tumblr Fics/Drabbles [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Murder, Torture, Tumblr Prompt, derek has only caught glimpses, stiles is ruthless when it comes to protecting his pack, this is for you maram bby, under all the wit and sarcasm lies something darker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 11:23:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/848979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/failwolfhale/pseuds/failwolfhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s always been something dark beneath Stiles’ exterior. Something Derek’s only gotten glimpses of here and there; first setting Peter on fire, then offering several times to let Jackson be killed when he was still the kanima, again with the Alphas, and then with Cora when Cora tried to betray them. It was something sinister that existed just below the surface, like it was always there just waiting for the slightest bit of provocation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we all know how to fake it, baby (we all know what we've done)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merthurkisses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merthurkisses/gifts).



> Title from the song We Must Be Killers by Mikky Ekko which I love and was played in season two episode seven I think, Raving, when Derek saved Scott from Victoria
> 
> This is for you, Maram. <33

If you asked, Derek couldn’t tell you when he fell for Stiles Stilinski of all fucking people in the world. He  _can_ tell you, however, that it was not one thing that made him fall over the edge. It was more of a series of things that he failed to realize were pushing him closer and closer to the edge until he’d already fallen and landed.

If given the time, he could probably trace the first nudge back to the summer between Stiles’ junior and senior years of high school. Stiles turned eighteen in mid June and for some reason he showed up at Derek’s loft unprompted but surprisingly not unwelcome. Derek had just been drinking coffee and looking at blueprints for the new house that was going to be built on his property about a mile from the original site, so it wasn’t like he was busy. But still he wasn’t clear on Stiles’ motives. 

.

“I was just bored, dude. Summer always gets boring at some point,” he’d explained insouciantly, flopping onto Derek’s blue velvet upholstered couch and kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. He looked comfortable. Derek didn’t know why that simple fact made him feel good inside.

Derek hadn’t known it was Stiles’ birthday. Stiles always had a way of deflecting questions he didn’t want to answer with subtlety that even Derek sometimes fell for. Eventually when Derek realized what Stiles was doing and steadfastly refused to be deflected again, Stiles slumped into the couch with a beer he stole from Derek’s fridge and grudgingly admitted that it was his birthday. His dad was working and Scott had forgotten in favor of running off with Allison or Isaac or both. Stiles didn’t care anymore. That was when Derek realized how lonely Stiles really was and got him another beer. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed before. 

Somehow, Derek became the one Stiles ran off with in the same manner Scott ran off with Isaac. The first time Stiles blew off Scott for Derek, Derek had been confused. He’d thought that Stiles only hung out with him or spent time around him because Scott wouldn’t. That the second Scott deigned to notice Stiles again, Stiles would go running without looking back. (Derek didn’t want to admit how upset he’d be, but he’d understand of course.)

He entertained the thought that Stiles was just getting back at Scott for exactly five seconds. They’d been about to leave the loft to pick up Chinese and rent a movie, nothing special or exciting, when Stiles’ phone rang. Scott asked if Stiles wanted to go see the new zombie movie with him but Stiles had apologized and said he had plans. Derek wondered if he got any satisfaction from it before he noticed that Stiles…Stiles really did look sorry. Like he wished there were some way to go with Scott but he had previous engagements he couldn’t break. 

“You can go,” Derek had said when Stiles hung up but Stiles just looked at him like he was an idiot. 

“Dude, no. We have a Clint Eastwood marathon to watch and heaps of Chinese food to eat. No way am I missing that,” he’d scoffed, shaking his head and dragging Derek to the car. He still sometimes doesn’t know why he lets Stiles drag him around but yet. 

So they started out as friends. It was a good friendship, one that grew and strengthened without too much work. They saw each other every weekend for movie marathons and junk food binges, during the week sometimes when Derek refused to allow Stiles to eat any junk food at all. Stiles grumbled that Derek was turning into the way he was with his father but Derek told him if he wanted to stay on first line in lacrosse, he couldn’t be fueling his body with that kind of crap. He listened to Stiles’ bad jokes and worse puns about everything from movies to grocery shopping (“it’s grape to meet you” “I don’t know you.” “but orange you glad we’re friends?” “I hate you.” “you’re squashing my heart, Derek” “I’m going home.”). Stiles put up with Derek’s attitude. And they both tested each other’s limits with sarcasm. 

.

It wasn’t until Stiles was leaving to college and Derek felt a sharp twist in his chest that Derek realized exactly what was happening. He tossed and turned in his sleep in the weeks leading up to Stiles’ departure. He figured Stiles would meet some girl or guy in college (Stiles hadn’t been shy about liking guys since Danny had admitted his previous and no longer in existence crush on Stiles when they were in seventh grade, very grudgingly) and they would get to touch Stiles and kiss him and undress him with more than their eyes. He was going to find someone who he deserved, who wasn’t damaged goods like Derek was. The thought killed him but Derek wanted him to be happy so he kept quiet and sent him off to college.

Stiles dated around and he talked to Derek about it. Derek went for a run (to Canada) when Stiles told him he gave up his “ass virginity” on the floor of some guy named Jason’s dorm room but he said he didn’t regret it, just wished it’d been more meaningful.

They skyped and called and texted regularly. Stiles’ friendship with Scott had been mended but Stiles still spent most of his free time with Derek when he had the chance. It was nice but still not enough. 

.

It was the five year anniversary of the last time anything evil had descended upon Beacon Hills. Stiles had graduated with summa cum laude honors from Berkley University with a degree in engineering. Derek had finally admitted his feelings to Stiles at his graduation which had earned him a solid punch in the arm and a long kiss that was not appropriate for audiences. Lydia graduated from MIT and was moving on to graduate school somewhere in France. Everyone had graduated from their respective schools with their respective degrees and were looking for jobs now. The pack had actually grown by two members, two sisters whose family had been killed by Hunters in Alabama. They were three years younger than the betas and they were adopted as the younger siblings, protected by the boys and spoiled by the girls. Everything was good, so of course the universe decided to throw them a group of four young Hunters with something to prove who didn’t give a crap about the Code.

.

There’s always been something dark beneath Stiles’ exterior. Something Derek’s only gotten glimpses of here and there; first setting Peter on fire, then offering several times to let Jackson be killed when he was still the kanima, again with the Alphas, and then with Cora when Cora tried to betray them. It was something sinister that existed just below the surface, like it was always there just waiting for the slightest bit of provocation. 

But Derek never got a realunadulterated  _view_ of it before until they caught one of the Hunters after Kelsey had been delivered to them in bloody pieces wrapped up in brown paper packaging and tied with wolfsbane soaked twine. A threat of more to come.

The Hunter was about nineteen or twenty with a mop of curly black hair and wide brown soulless eyes who stared at them all with undisguised revulsion. Stiles had asked to take care of him, to fish for information. So Derek had allowed him that, getting Boyd and Isaac to transfer them to an empty warehouse where Stiles could interrogate. They’d tied him up and left Stiles to it, standing sentinel outside the building. 

When Derek showed up several hours later to relieve Isaac and Boyd of their duties, he headed upstairs to check on Stiles. What he found was shocking though. The room Stiles had chosen took up at least half of the top floor with concrete floors and square columns scattered about, steel beams crisscrossing the ceiling and three brick walls. The last was completely glass and looked out over the crumbling remains of Beacon Hills’ Industrial Warehouse District.

The Hunter sat in a chair, bound with his back to the windows. Stiles sat quietly in front of him, wielding a sharp dagger that was coated in crimson blood. The Hunter spoke to Stiles in shaking and cracked words, hitches in his breath whenever Stiles moved a muscle. His face was bloodied and bruised, scrapes on his cheeks and dark circles around his eyes. Blood stained his clothes, tears in the fabric where the blood was darker that indicated sources. The smell was almost unbearable for Derek but he couldn’t move as he watched and watched.

Stiles was so calm, like what he’d done to the human in front of him hadn’t fazed him at all. His lips would quirk or eyes would flash every so often with the words the Hunter spoke but Derek couldn’t pay attention to what was being said. Not when that dark and sinister thing Derek had only glimpsed and guessed at was now on display for him to see and analyze and watch without shame. 

When Stiles finally noticed Derek he stood and the Hunter flinched violently, the chair he was sitting in tipping slightly back but Stiles paid him no heed. 

“He killed Kelsey,” Stiles told him without bothering to conceal the absolute fury in his tone. He and Kelsey had grown close since she and Kayla had joined the Pack and Stiles was most affected after Kayla. “I know where the rest are hiding and I know their plans. We can kill them.” 

“And this one?” Derek asked, jerking his chin towards the other Hunter. 

Stiles just raised a brow before looking back to regard the Hunter. He prowled over, a slow sinuous walk that had the boy trembling. Stiles knelt and put a finger under his chin, forcing his gaze up to Stiles’. “Do you have anymore information for me?” he asked, imitating a kind uncle with the gentle tone and soft smile he used. 

“N-no, I’ve t-told you ev-verything. I sw-wear,” the Hunter stuttered and Stiles turned to Derek for confirmation. 

Derek gave a nod of his head, hearing only the truth in the Hunter’s heart beat and waiting to see what Stiles would do. Stiles stood and ruffled the Hunter’s hair which made him flinch again. It was odd and hard to reconcile the recalcitrant boy Derek had last seen with the trembling one he now looked at. Stiles took a few measured paces around the chair until he was behind the Hunter. Derek’s eyes widened when Stiles grabbed at dark curls and forced the boy’s face up, neck bared. 

“This is for killing Kelsey,” he growled at the boy and slid the blade of his knife over the Hunter’s throat in a quick motion. Blood flowed thick and red and Stiles stepped away, making a small satisfied nod. “Come on. We have some other Hunters to take care of,” he told Derek, wiping the blood from his knife with the only clean edge of the boy’s tshirt on the back of his neck before sheathing it in the holder at his waist. 

Derek watched wide eyed as Stiles strolled easily past him towards the door, steps never faltering. Derek turned back to the dead boy in front of him and sighed. There was nothing Stiles wouldn’t do to protect his pack. It turned out he could be pretty vicious, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Come play with me](http://failwolfhale.tumblr.com).


End file.
